The 2008 Cuvee Nouge - Muscat Petit Grain with a bit of Macabeu and Viognier (the Muscat Alexandrine usually included in this blend having been bottled solo) - smells of wild fennel, mint, acacia, lemon and orange. Piquant peach kernel and pungent herbal notes play on a bright, mouthwateringly saline palate, leading to a penetrating, invigorating finish. This wine's rather spare texture accentuates its aggressive phenolics and sharp sense of low pH, and I could see it benefiting from maturation in cask, which will in fact be this cuvee's destiny in the 2011 vintage after Lubbe takes delivery of old foudres from the Breuer estate in the Rheingau. Tom Lubbe - for much more about whose work, consult my report in issue 183 - continues to experiment and fine tune, and there are some new cuvees and ideas here since I last visited. Speaking of which, beginning with 2011, Lubbe will have some old and impeccably cared-for foudres to utilize, as he was able to pick them up from Weingut Georg Breuer in Rudesheim whose cellar renovations were incompatible with their largest barrels. (Pity the freight company tasked with trucking them up to Calce!) I quizzed Lubbe this year about his reliance on so little sulfur; and he sought to assure me that "'tis enough, 'twill serve." But he also noted that contrary to widespread practice among advocates of low sulfur, he applies his sole dosage not at bottling, but rather right after the wine comes out of malo, so as to shock it only once; to have longer to observe the emergence of any potential problems; and above all because he believes that this is the most vulnerable moment in a wine's elevage, and hence the point, if any, at which it requires sulfuring. Lubbe notes that despite the drought in 2008, his vines produced a larger crop (relatively speaking!) than in other (warmer) recent vintages. He shares an opinion I heard from quite a few growers in the wake of recent experience that ultimately it's heat, not drought, that by promoting shut-down wreaks mischief with quality. (Incidentally, New Zealand-born Sam Harrop M.W. - known inter alia for his work in the Loire - is now no longer a partner in Matassa.)Importer: Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191